[Advaita-l] Advaita-The Vedanta.

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

Sunilji -PraNAms.
Here is my understanding.
The philosophy starts with the emphaisis on visheShaNa- visheshya sambandha.
1. There are no objects in the universe without attributes. 
2. The attributes and the object are inseparable and are intrinsic with each other.  
3. Consciousness is also an attribute for both jiiva and Iswara.- They separate the self-conscious vs object-conscious - dharmi and dharma jnaana.
4. Brahman is not attributeless – He is, in fact, ananta kalyaana guna aashraya – infinite auspicious qualities. Nirguna is interpreted as doshaguna rahitam. 
5. Jiiva is anupramaaNa – suukshma is interpreted as very small.
6. In the analysis of attributes, they consider multiple jiivas and and inert jagat as part of his virat shariira as in 11th ch. of Gita. Thus is oneness that pervades as the parama aatma and at the same time each individual component is different like organs in the body. 
7. There are nitya mukta jiivas like mahalakshmi, vishvak sena etc. 
8. Interestingly karmayoga is considered as swadharma and jnaana yoga as paradharma by Ramanuja.
Since it is visheshaNa sahita advaita (virat swaruupa) the philosophy is called vishiShTa advaita. 
I should stop with this since the emphasis is more on adviata than vishiShTaadvaita. 
Hari Om!
Sadananda
 

From: Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>
>To: kuntimaddi sadananda <kuntimaddisada at yahoo.com>; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
>Sent: Monday, August 6, 2012 12:01 PM
>Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Advaita-The Vedanta.
>
>
>Namaste Sadanandaji,
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>I too feel that the word Vishistadvaita was coined later on when the concept Dvaita Vedanta (the non-Vedanta misinterpreted as Vedanta) was propagated. That could have been  more to distinguish it from the Dvaita than to distinguish it fron the Advaita. May be Madhacharya himself or his followers coined that term to distinguish his ideas from those of Ramanujacharya. In such a case, may the Dvaita school will be able to tell us the historicity of the term "Vishishtadvaita".
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>Can it be said that in a simple form that the term Vishistadvaita signifies that the Visheshatva (distinctivevness) of the Jeeva is not lost even though the  Jeeva has unity with the Brahman? In Advaita the Jeeva is no different from the Brahman (ie.,the Jeeva has no such distinctiveness) in the Paramarthika sense. 
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>Regards,
>Sunil KB
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>Fr